Welcome United Kingdom

A special welcome to our friends and families from the UK !!! We express our deepest sympathy to those of you who have lost loved ones to Methadone deaths.We share in your pain and suffering as we walk this Journey of Grief together...it is unnatural for a Mother to bury her child first. We unite with you in your cause to have the authorities be held responsible for lack of education and prescribing of Methadone.Sadly too many people continue to die while billions of dollars are being made every year. These deaths are going under reported here in the USA, also. The government is not enforcing the guidelines that have been laid out that are to be held strictly by state and federal authorities. Four years ago in Scotland a new program " Road To Recovery" was put into place to keep records however it was reported this past week the program was never implemented.

Thank you for signing the Petition and share your story here on this site, please. We are our children's voices and we will stand together hand in hand to put a Stop to these Deaths.

Methadone: We told you programme isn't working

AN official Scottish Government report has proved our assessment that the £36m methadone programme is a failure.

THE Daily Record has for months been exposing Scotland’s £36million methadone programme as an expensive sham.

An official Scottish Government report published yesterday proved us right.

For too long, drug addicts in communities across Scotland have been abandoned to
a lifetime of legalised oblivion by the controversial treatment programme.

And as the Government’s own figures demonstrate, that it simply is not working.

Two-thirds of addicts are still taking heroin three months after starting methadone. Few can rely on authorities to help provide a secure home, a steady job or regular contact with their loved ones.

What they can rely on is a state-sponsored stupor. A stupor paid for at an immense cost to the hard-pressed taxpayer.

At the same time, other services such as residential treatment places are underused or, worse, closed down to save money.

That is not to say methadone does not have a place in treating heroin addiction. It does have some worth as a short-term solution in certain circumstances.

But over the last few decades, a shameful policy of parking addicts on the drug for years on end – in some cases decades – has been allowed to creep in.

Politicians from all parties were happy to go along with it because it meant they were seen to be taking action on addiction without having to make tough decisions.

Police supported it, buying into the unconvincing argument that methadone keeps the crime rate down. Pharmacists, meanwhile, made a lot of money.

The Daily Record has campaigned long and hard on this issue. Rarely have we highlighted an issue which impacts on so many of readers and their families.

Our methadone coverage has not proved popular with politicians, and we were even attacked in the Scottish Parliament.

Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie was furious, insisting there was no proof that methadone wasn’t effective.

Well, here it is in black and white. The question now is what are the politicians going to do about it.

Shocking report shows two in three addicts on methadone still use drugs after three months
19 Dec 2012 07:28


THE Scottish Government report suggests that the £36m-a-year programme aimed a weaning heroin addicts off drugs is not working.

TWO thirds of drug users still take illegal substances three months after starting addiction treatment, a shock Government report on methadone has revealed.

Health bosses spend £36million a year dishing out methadone to addicts, and the heroin substitute forms the mainstay of treatment.

But the Report on People in Treatment study reveals that more than two out of every three users who go into treatment admit continuing to use illegal drugs after three months.

The paper – released after a Record investigation into methadone – also suggests the Government have little idea of how effective the programme is in weaning addicts off drugs.

Information is only held on people who entered treatment after 2010, and time after time the report refers to massive sections of “unknown” or “missing” information.

Where information was available, the report painted a bleak picture of addicts’ success in holding down jobs or maintaining family relationships.

The number of people reporting being in work after three months of drug treatment actually fell from just 12 per cent to an even more pitiful nine per cent.

The report also reveals that in almost a third of cases – 29 per cent – the Government appears not to know where drug addicts’ children were living.

Children were only living with the addict after three months of treatment in 30 per cent of cases.

In 41 per cent of cases, their status was simply “living elsewhere”. The remainder were “unknown”.

The report also suggested that current drug treatments were doing little to combat homelessness among addicts.


Methadone

Campaigners for more residential rehab facilities will be dismayed to find that few people gain access to these services.

The report stated that just one per cent of addicts who accessed treatment in 2011-12 were in supported accommodation or residential rehab.

The report’s publication followed a Daily Record investigation that pinned down the true cost of the methadone programme.

In a string of exclusives, the Record has revealed how the heroin substitute costs taxpayers more than £36million a year.

One pharmacist, Denis Houlihan, has claimed more than £850,000 through just one chemist shop over six years.

We also highlighted the lack of information held to show whether the policy was actually working.

We highlighted cases where addicts had been left on methadone for decades without being offered any other treatment.

Labour MSP Graeme Pearson, former head of the SCDEA, criticised the poor quality of information in the report and called for a Government rethink on drug treatment.

He said: “The stats are based on poor quality data. But once you remove the unknowns from the figures, the picture seems to say that nothing changes.

“Often the use of methadone links to homelessness and there is little evidence to show that Government policy is reducing numbers of
problematic drug abusers.

“More than 20 per cent of prisoners in Barlinnie queue daily to obtain their prescription of methadone.

“Public services must turn their minds to reduction strategies rather than mere maintenance of the problem.”

Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research, said: “There are a number of areas where we should be concerned.

“We are clearly failing in securing employment for drug users who are well down the road to recovery.

“However, I think the greatest concern has to do with the children of drug dependent parents.

“In particular, the fact that drug services do not appear to know of the living circumstances of approaching a third of the these children.

“Given what we know is the level of risk and harm that these children are exposed to, this is a shocking figure and something that drug treatment services need to focus upon urgently.”

Community Safety and Legal Affairs Minister Roseanna Cunningham said: “We have been working since we introduced the Road to Recovery drugs strategy in 2008 to gather better information on drug treatment in Scotland and today’s publication marks an
important starting point.”

Scotland’s chief medical officer Harry Burns is carrying out a review of the methadone programme. The probe will consult all parties before making recommendations to the Government and Scottish Parliament next spring.

Number of addicts caught with methadone in Scotland's courts reaches 3,500 - Daily Record

www.dailyrecord.co.uk

YESTERDAY, the figures led to new calls for an end to the methadone scandal that costs Scottish taxpayers more than £36million a ye

In the United States Methadone kills more people than heroin, cocaine and traffic accidents. From 2006 - 2010 939 people were killed in crashes involving drivers on Methadone. Do you have anyone checking the facts on those Stats ? The lastest Stats on the Methadone death toll ? Please visit www.stopmethadonedeaths.com as we help educate the public the Truth Behind Methadone. Share your story sign the Peititon you may help save a life.We greatly appreciate your interest in this rising problem.









Methadone a Scots scourge


AN astonishing 3500 people have been caught with methadone in their possession in Scotland's court buildings.
Published Time: Yesterday at 2:00am

http://www.scotsman.com/news/health/dundee-methadone-doctor-suspended-for-six-months-1-2853840




Dundee methadone doctor suspended for six months

Scotland takes action against negligent Methadone doctor .

Methadone headlines is at the forefront of media in the United States and Internationally in 2013.Innocent children have to be protected from dirty syringes that are thrown on the ground in their pathway especially as they walk to and from school. Deaths continue to climb in the USA from Methadone every year from use and abuse. Physicians are refusing in prescribing the dangerous drug since there is no demand for required training and education. Pharmacies are refusing to carry the drug due to robbieries at gun point that have left in blood being shed. Please visit www.stopmethadonedea
ths.com as we help educate the public the truth behind Methadone.”

http://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/news/10412697._No_methadone__for_Walton_pharmacy/#commentsList

People who have nothing to hide...hide nothing. Put up the cameras to protect the patients and Community.

http://www.londoncommunitynews.com/news-story/3239831-committee-supports-cameras-fees-for-methadone-clinics/#.UaSzqYONAug.facebook

Drug supply trial starts




Published on 24/07/2013 15:39



A Haverhill man died after being encouraged by his cousin to drink from a bottle of the heroin substitute methadone, it has been alleged.



Brendon Jackson, 28, twice asked Daniel Boyle if he wanted some of the drug before offering him the bottle from which he took “a swig”, a jury at Ipswich Crown Court was told this week.

Mr Boyle, 24, a steel erector from Haverhill, showed no immediate reaction, but the following morning was found dead in the hotel room he was sharing with Jackson near Bristol, said prosecutor Andrew Thompson.

Jackson, of Westward Deals, Kedington, is on trial after pleading not guilty to a charge of supplying a class A drug.

The court heard that Jackson and Mr Boyle were cousins and good friends and had both been working for the same Essex-based construction company on a contract at Bristol in October 2011.

Mr Thompson said: “The family have been torn apart by this death. There has been a breakdown in the relationship between the two sides of the family.”

Jackson was arrested seven months after Mr Boyle’s death when fellow worker James Manley, who had been staying at the same hotel contacted police to say he had not told the full story in his initial statement.

Giving evidence, Mr Manley said he had been present when Mr Boyle, who he described as being “significantly affected” by cannabis, was offered methadone by Jackson on the evening of October 11, 2011.

After seeing what was happening, Mr Manley said he told Mr Boyle “not to be an idiot” but Mr Boyle had taken the bottle and taken “a swig” from it.

Mr Manley said he had come forward after talking with Mr Boyle’s father but denied that he had been pressurised to make a fresh statement.

At the time of Mr Boyle’s death he had not wanted to be seen by others as a “grass.”

The court heard that during the initial investigation by Somerset and Avon Police, no photographs of the hotel room had been taken and there were delays in obtaining statements.

Mr Thompson said: “It was clear that there were some failings in the initial investigation.

“Some procedures were not followed.”

As a result of a complaint by Mr Boyle’s father, officers had been provided with additional training.

The cause of Mr Boyle’s death was not immediately ascertained but later toxicology tests identified the cause as a reaction to methadone.

Mr Thompson said medical experts said a single dose of methadone could prove fatal to someone who was not used to the drug.

Mr Thompson said Jackson had been legally prescribed methadone to help him deal with his own drug use and he had obtained it from a pharmacy in Haverhill, signing an agreement that he would safeguard it and not share the methadone with others.

Following his arrest Jackson told police that he never encouraged Mr Boyle to take methadone or handed him the bottle after taking his own prescribed dose.

He said that Mr Boyle had “helped himself.”

The trial continues.

.

CTV London
Published Thursday, August 29, 2013 6:36PM EDT



Some London city councillors are calling for a review of the city's two month old methadone clinic bylaw following a story CTV News broke on Wednesday.

It's about how a controversial clinic on Wharncliffe Road South found a way to side-step the rules.

It has not and has no intention to seek zoning to operate as a methadone clinic.




Related Stories

Controversial medical clinic skirts London bylaw


Committee approves new licensing rules for London methadone clinic


Harm reduction more effective than war on drugs: study



Photos




This medical facility on Wharncliffe Road has raised a number of issues about London's bylaw on methadone clinics.

City Councillor Harold Usher says it would have been nice to get a heads up.

"We amended it to operate as a methadone clinic. If they want to do less, or if anybody wants to do less than that, it just seems a courtesy to come back to us and say we're not going to use it for that any more," Usher says.

The revelation comes after years of emotional public meetings and a year-and-a-half long moratorium on new methadone clinics.

But according to the lawyer for the facility, it is not a methadone clinic because it does not have a pharmacy onsite that dispenses methadone.

It does have doctors who treat patients with the medicine and the property is currently zoned as a doctor's office.

"When we make these decisions we don't make them lightly," adds Usher.

Under the bylaw, a methadone clinic cannot be located within 300 metres of a school. The intent is to keep a buffer between children and any undesirable element, such as drug dealers.

But a clinic zoned simply as a doctor's office has no such restrictions, and could theoretically be located right next to a school.

"It is a bit of a flaw in the law there or it's a grey area, so we will have to review it just to make sure that we don't find ourselves in the middle of another controversy," says Councillor Bill Armstrong.

Councillor Denise Brown doesn't buy the clinic's argument. She says the bylaw comes down to interpretation.

"That lawyer could be wrong, I need to hear from our legal staff to see how this can be happening. Because we cannot allow this to happen in this city. We have a bylaw in place. We need to make sure that it's foolproof and so that it cannot occur that anyone can open anywhere."
.

Read more: http://london.ctvnews.ca/some-council-members-want-to-revisit-methadone-clinic-bylaw-1.1432765#ixzz2dT4P8zzQ

http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/burnleypendlerossendale/10733806.Methadone_overdose_killed_Colne_mum/

I am deeply sorry for your loss.

Young father, 22, died after taking methadone

02 January 2014

A YOUNG father from Pwllheli died after taking a quantity of methadone, an inquest has heard.Danny Jones, 22, had passed a drugs test two weeks before he died at the hostel in Wrexham.

At a hearing in Ruthin, John Gittins, the Coroner for North Wales East and Central, recorded a conclusion of accidental death on Mr Jones, who had been staying at the Plas y Wern hostel in Acrefair, near Wrexham.His mother, Marianna Jones, told the inquest that he had had a drug problem for several years and that had resulted in court appearances.

He was sent to Plas y Wern by Caernarfon magistrates.Mrs Jones said that although he hated being there at first he had settled down and got on well with the staff.In the weeks leading up to his death she said “he didn’t look right” but he was optimistic about the future, looking forward to being with his fiancé Sharon Hanks and their young daughter.

The coroner read a statement from John Wall, who knew Danny as a youth in Pwllheli and met him again in Wrexham.

On July 29, he said, they spent time together and Danny offered him some methadone, which he said he had paid £10 for. Mr Wall refused and thought he heard Danny pouring it away.

He then accompanied Danny to the bus for him to get back to Plas y Wern before his 11pm curfew.

Mark McFall, manager of the hostel, said that a member of staff described him as “out of breath and sweating” when he arrived back and thought he might have been drinking.

http://london.ctvnews.ca/staff-shortages-bring-medical-care-issues-at-emdc-1.1632435

I suggest substitute Gatorade and Imodium Ad and stop the Methadone catering to prisoners.

http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Judge-demands-information-Cross-Heath-addict-died/story-20434259-detail/story.html

Judge demands more foresenic info on how man died.

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/all-news/sister-s-claim-mum-gave-her-son-the-drug-that-killed-him-1-6369743


Sister’s claim: Mum gave her son the drug that killed him



Robert Prentice



Published on the 13 January
2014
14:04











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AN inquest into a man’s death from a drug overdose was halted after his sobbing sister told the hearing their mother supplied the methadone.


Robert Prentice, from Hendon, Sunderland, was found dead in his mother’s front room on August 20.

Tests revealed the 27-year-old had taken a cocktail of drugs – including methadone.

The hearing was told the heroin substitute had been prescribed to his mother, Sharon, who told police she kept the Class A drug in a locked cupboard.

But Mr Prentice’s sister Elaine told the inquest in Sunderland that her mother – who was not at the hearing – supplied her brother with the methadone.

Wiping away tears, Miss Prentice, of Cork Street, said she had last seen her brother on the Friday before he died. “My mam told us it was her methadone. It was never, ever in any locked cupboard.

“I told the police the first day, but they did not listen to me because I was hysterical.

“My mam told the paramedics that Robert did not take any drugs, while they were trying to revive him.

“Why did she not tell them the truth? Because she supplied him the drugs and they did not want to be found out. Robert hated my mam.”

Coroner’s officer Reginald Hooper told the inquest that the father-of-two was a known drug-user and had mental health problems.

He was thought to have fallen asleep on the settee at Donnison Gardens, Hendon, and was checked at 2.30am and again at 5am.

But at 2.30pm, an ambulance was called and Mr Prentice was pronounced dead by paramedics less than an hour later after failed attempts to revive him.

As well as methadone, tests showed Mr Prentice had amphetamine, cannabis, diazepam and other drugs in his system.

Home Office pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton said the levels of methadone could have been fatal to someone who was not used to the drug.

Senior Coroner Derek Winter said he would ask Northumbria Police to re-visit the case.

“I will ask the police to make some further inquiries that will mean speaking with you and other family members and reporting back to me.

“Subject to what they say, I may compel other people to attend and carry out further inquiries.”

A further hearing will take place on January 29.

http://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/crime/offender-must-pay-291-for-damage-1-6415946
















A drug addict who threw desks and smashed a safety screen after she was denied access to prescribed methadone at an NHS unit has been ordered to pay £291 compensation.


Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard how Lucy Brown, 29, of Hawthorne Street, Chesterfield, was told at the NHS Bayheath House she could not have unsupervised access to the medication.

Becky Allsop, prosecuting, said Brown abused a staff member at Bayheath House before throwing tables and ramming one into a safety screen four or five times. Brown pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage after the incident on December 23.

John Wilford, defending, said Brown’s prescription had to be supervised and she was frustrated because she was planning to travel to be with her father. Magistrates sentenced Brown on Thursday, January 30, to a community order with drug rehabilitation and ordered her to pay compensation.

Alan Duffy

 Comments (0)
A drug addict has been jailed for a vicious street attack on a disabled man after he left a methadone bottle with his name on it at the scene.

A shocked driver was forced to make an emergency stop to avoid running over Alan Duffy and his victim Richard Sinclair after he pushed him into a main road.

Duffy knocked Mr Sinclair’s stick away and left him with a broken nose and black eye after a sustained attack on a main road in Paignton.

He was a homeless drug user who attacked his victim after an argument.

Duffy, aged 46, of no fixed abode, admitted causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for 12 months by Judge Erik Salomonsen.

He told him:”The victim suffered from a condition which made him walk with a stick. You punched him to the ground twice and fractured his nose and caused him broken teeth and swelling to his cheek.

“You left him covered in blood. You attacked a disabled man in the street and in those circumstances there must be an immediate custodial sentence.”

Miss Janice Eagles, prosecuting, said the victim tried to fend Duffy off with his walking stick after being knocked to the ground. The police were called by a van driver who had to stop in Totnes Road because the two men were in his path.

She said after the attack Duffy walked off but was arrested nearby. She said:”He left behind him a methadone bottle which had his full name on it. Police arrested him shortly afterwards.”

Mr Paul Dentith, defending, said Duffy became angry because he claimed he had been racially abused. He had been doing well on supervision at the time and hoped to return to a stable life while staying with his sister in Paignton.


Read more: http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Drug-addict-jailed-street-attack-disabled-man/story-20812484-detail/story.html#ixzz2wEQznvnC

North West Evening Mail
News
Ulverston

Ulverston death sparks fears of drug menace’s return


Published at 12:02, Friday, 18 April 2014


THE death of an Ulverston man who choked on his own vomit has led to fears that methadone abuse is “rearing its head” in the area.













WARNING Coroner Ian Smith

1 of 2 Photos



















An inquest at Barrow Town Hall on Wednesday heard Andrew John Thorburn, of North Lonsdale Road, Ulverston, died at his home on December 6 after drinking with friends.

Mr Thorburn, 39, had a combination of alcohol, methadone and anti-depressants including diazepam in his bloodstream.

Mr Ian Smith, coroner for South and East Cumbria, said although the dosages of each individual drug were not in themselves enough to kill Mr Thorburn, the combined effect meant his automatic responses failed when he vomited in his sleep.

An autopsy concluded he died as a result of aspiration of vomit due to the effects of methadone and alcohol.

Duncan O’Sullivan, who described Mr Thorburn as “my best friend”, had been staying with him at the time of his death.

He told the coroner’s court they had been drinking at The Piel Castle, where Mr Thorburn confided he had been using heroin and methadone.

He said: “He was so out of it at the pub he was just making a nuisance of himself, so I called him a taxi. He was falling asleep in the taxi so I was slapping his face to try and wake him up. When we got back he had a can of beer but he was spilling it all over himself so I sent him to bed.”

Later that evening Mr O’Sullivan went to check on his friend. “He wasn’t in a good position. I turned him over and that’s when I realised,” he said.

PC John Turner, of Cumbria police, said he attended North Lonsdale Road after a neighbour called 999 reporting a woman shouting “he’s dead, he’s dead”.

When PC Turner attended the scene, he walked through the door of Mr Thorburn’s home and heard people counting. He realised they were performing CPR and called an ambulance.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, Mr Smith said: “Methadone is a very dangerous drug. The same dosage can have different effects on different people, and even worse the same dose can affect the same person differently.

“It was a problem in the area in the 1990s and we thought we had got a grip on it. Now 20 years later it is rearing its head again.”

Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk


http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/ulverston/ulverston-death-sparks-fears-of-drug-menace-s-return-1.1130611

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Parents using methadone to pacify children, charity warns

Adfam research into childhood deaths shows 'rare but real' use of the drug by parents as means to calm young children





The Guardian, Monday 28 April 2014



Two people were charged last month in connection with the death of two-year-old Sophie Jones who had ingested methadone. Photograph: Lancashire Police/PA


Some children are being given methadone by parents with a serious drug addiction to "pacify" them, warns a charity working with families coping with narcotic abuse.

In the first detailed examination of the risks to children of drug treatment medications, the charity Adfam said that in the last five years there were 17 serious case reviews – undertaken when a child in care dies from abuse or neglect – involving opiate substitutes.

In about a fifth of cases studied, parents were "deliberately administering methadone to young children, apparently in misguided attempts to soothe or pacify them".

The charity said: "Although methadone is effective in treating drug addiction, child ingestions happen with depressing regularity and national lessons are not being learned from serious case reviews. We are seeing a rare but real use of methadone as a pacifier for small children."

The charity also warned that many of cases were of preventable deaths where children died after accidently drinking methadone – and called for the synthetic opioid to be kept in "strong boxes" to prevent a fatal mishap at home. Only last December a two-year-old boy died after swallowing his mother's methadone from a beaker.

In 2012 almost 61,000 drug-addict parents in England were receiving a "prescribing intervention" to wean them off their habit. Vivienne Evans, chief executive of Adfam, said: "It was likely that the number of children being given drugs or taking them accidently is higher than the serious case reviews show.

"We need hospitals to start analysing admissions for child poisoning to get a better picture. We have no idea how many kids are turning up at A&E having been given methadone.

"Just one of these cases would be one case too many, but this research shows that they have happened with depressing regularity over the last decade. We need a more proactive and nationally coordinated plan to tackle these risks, rather than waiting for every area in the country to experience a tragedy before anyone takes action."

Adfam cautioned that social workers and GPs were resistant to the idea that parents would give their own children drugs to calm them. The charity's report, entitled "tackling the risks to children", says: "Many professionals found the very idea of intentional administration a difficult one to accept, and were reluctant to believe their clients would behave in such a way."

Judith Yates, an inner-city Birmingham GP working on drug policy who advised Adfam, said that "giving methadone to young children is not as strange as you might think".

"You have to remember that in Victorian times parents gave babies opium tinctures to soothe them. The fact is that today some babies are born drug-dependent. Children born to mothers taking methadone have a drug dependency which hospitals deal with through a withdrawal program for two weeks after birth. Their parents sometimes mistakenly think a baby crying at home is doing so because of opium cravings and give them their methadone."

Yates said that her surgery had changed its advice after reviewing Adfam's work to "explicitly tell parents not to give methadone to their children in any circumstance".

Guidelines from the Department of Health and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) state that the risks to children should be assessed by professionals deciding which drugs to prescribe and whether they can be taken home by the patient. However, the Adfam report suggests the risks to children are not being adequately managed in practice.

Meg Munn, the Labour MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on child protection, said: "Whilst we have a clear view of the risks involved with these medications, it's unacceptable that we don't know how many children might be affected: we need to know more about take-home prescriptions and how many children are exposed to them."

"These tragedies are not always unavoidable. Parents and all the professionals working with them have a responsibility to manage the dangers posed by powerful prescription drugs being stored in the home, and we need them all to take a more active role in minimising risk."


http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/29/parents-methadone-pacify-children-deaths-adfam

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ShareFacebookTwitter.Sophie Jones' Blackpool methadone death 'haunts' fatherBy Peter Marshall

BBC North West Tonight

Sophie Jones Sophie Jones died after ingesting methadone
Continue reading the main story
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Toddler killed by 'stockpiled drugs'

The father of a two-year-old girl who died after drinking methadone at his home has told a jury he "did all he could to keep her safe".

Sophie Jones took the heroin substitute prescribed for her mother Michelle King at their home in Blackpool.

King has admitted her manslaughter.

Sophie's father, Barry Jones, told Preston Crown Court he had been "haunted" King knew she had taken the drug and did nothing. He denies manslaughter.

The court has heard methadone was found stockpiled at the couple's home in a child's drinking cup and a fruit drink carton.

The jury was told the pair tried to cover up what had happened and if they had sought immediate medical help their daughter might have been saved with a methadone poisoning antidote.

Mother 'ran risk'

During cross-examination, Mr Jones said he had no knowledge Sophie had taken methadone on the day she died and blamed King.

"I am haunted by that; that she did know that Sophie had taken methadone and could have done something to save her life," he told the court.

"Had I known my daughter had taken methadone, I would have done something."

Michelle King and Barry Jones The prosecution claim the couple made £300 a month from selling methadone
Mr Jones said: "I tried my best to look after Sophie. I couldn't physically do anymore; the risk was being run by Michelle."

He told the jury he feared Sophie would be taken into care if he told social services about King's behaviour.

He said he had tried his best to look after Sophie and "couldn't physically do any more".

The jury heard he had told King not to store methadone in children's cups and had poured some away, but she was "stubborn".

The prosecution claim the couple made £300 a month from selling methadone.

Mr Jones also reacted strongly to prosecution claims Sophie had been given methadone to keep her quiet while he and King took drugs.

"She certainly was not given that methadone," he said.

"I don't know how she got hold of it."

Mr Jones denies manslaughter by gross negligence and an alternative charge of causing or allowing a child's death.

The trial continues.

Mother whose son was killed by methadone is fighting for truth to come out


By North Devon Journal  |  Posted: November 19, 2014



Suzanne Riddock and her son Ashley Kelly




Suzanne Riddock and her son Ashley Kelly

 
A MOTHER is fighting for the truth to come out about her 22-year-old son who died after taking methadone.

Devon and Cornwall Police quickly ruled out anything suspicious after initially treating the death of Ashley Kelly at his home in August as a murder investigation.

But has now emerged that officers have arrested a person for supplying the prescription drug to Ashley and his mother Suzanne Riddock

They are on bail until December. It is understood police are awaiting the results of phone records before deciding what, if any, charges to bring is hopeful the truth is finally emerging.

His mother Suzanne Riddock said her son was “left to die”.

She claimed he had never been an addict but had been given a drug known as methadone by a dealer in the early hours of the morning. Methadone is an opioid often used as a heroin substitute.

Ms Riddock also claims that the woman who gave him the drugs left him despite “knowing all the dangers supplying to someone with no experience of the drug,”

She said: “All I wanted was the truth and I knew Ashley’s death was suspicious straight away. The truth is finally emerging,

“Ashley had only just turned 22 and was a very healthy young man. Whoever gave him the drug would have known all the dangers relating to someone with no experience this drug taking it.

“Ashley wasn’t any kind of addict so this is why we believe it killed him.

The family also believe that the person who gave Ashley the drug left him after he had taken the drug. They are hopeful that this may see more serious charges being brought.

“I now have faith in the police that they are taking this case very seriously,” added Ms Riddock.

Ashley was a former pupil at Whipton First School and St James School in Exeter. He had four brothers and little sister on the way.

Ms Riddock added: “I last spoke to my gorgeous son at 9.20pm on Wednesday, August 6 and he was in good spirits. To say this is a shock to us all is an understatement and no child should go before their parents.

“We all loved Ashley. He was such a free spirit and was the apple of my eye.”

A police spokesman confirmed that a 30-year-old woman from Exeter has been arrested on suspicion of being concerned in the supply of Methadone, a Class A drug. She has been bailed until Wednesday, December 3.


Read more: http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/Mother-son-killed-methadone-fighting-truth-come/story-24559975-detail/story.html#ixzz3JcjztZ00
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